The Duck and Rice

Should you book The Duck and Rice on Berwick Street?

Yes, if you want a Soho pub with a Chinese kitchen attached and a drinks list that takes itself seriously without demanding you do the same. The Duck and Rice sits at 90 Berwick St in the heart of W1, which puts it in one of London's most competitive casual-dining corridors. Whether it earns your booking over the alternatives around it depends largely on what you're after: a proper pint in a handsome room, a by-the-glass wine selection that outperforms most pub lists in the area, or Chinese food you'd actually return for. On all three counts, it holds up.

What to expect the second time around

If you've been once, you already know the room: high ceilings, dark wood, the visual weight of a Victorian pub that's been restored rather than reimagined. The ground floor bar is where you want to be if you're drinking. The upstairs dining room is quieter and better suited for a sit-down meal. For a return visit, the drinks list is worth your attention — the by-the-glass wine offering here is more considered than you'd expect from a pub-format venue. Most Soho pubs pour three or four house wines and call it done. The Duck and Rice runs a longer rotation that behaves more like a wine bar's approach than a restaurant afterthought, which makes it a reasonable stop if you're working through our full London bars guide and want something that bridges the gap between pub and proper wine list.

The cocktail side is functional rather than ambitious, so if craft cocktails are the priority, you'd be better served heading to 69 Colebrooke Row or A Bar with Shapes for a Name. But for a glass of wine before or after eating, or for something cold and cold-weather-appropriate depending on the season, the bar here is genuinely worth the stop.

Booking and timing

Booking difficulty at The Duck and Rice is low — this is not a venue where you need to plan weeks ahead. That said, Berwick Street draws weekend foot traffic, and the ground floor bar fills from early evening on Fridays and Saturdays. If you want a table for food upstairs, booking a day or two ahead is sensible. For drinks at the bar alone, walk-ins work well at lunch or on weekday early evenings. Groups larger than four are more comfortable with a reservation to avoid waiting around on the ground floor. If you're combining a meal here with a broader Soho evening, it fits naturally as a first stop rather than a destination you need to build a night around.

Practical details

The venue is at 90 Berwick St, London W1F 0QB, a short walk from Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road. For a broader look at what's around it, our full London restaurants guide covers the neighbourhood well. If you're planning an overnight stay nearby, our full London hotels guide has options across price points. For experiences in the area, see our full London experiences guide. Bars worth comparing across the UK include Bramble in Edinburgh for a very different cocktail-bar benchmark, and internationally, Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu if you want a sense of what a genuinely programme-led bar looks like at its ceiling. Closer to home, Academy and Amaro in London offer tighter, more focused drinking experiences if that's the direction you want to move in. For a different take on the pub-with-serious-drinks format outside London, Bar Kismet in Halifax is a useful comparison point. Our full London wineries guide is worth checking if the wine angle here has you curious about exploring further.